ARLEE – With the 2018-19 basketball season well under way, one could say this season is sort of a swan song for the Arlee boys and girls basketball teams so far. Because of increasing enrollment numbers, both the ...

When I was a kid, the telephone was important stuff. Like most families, we had one phone number. Can you imagine an entire family sharing one phone number? Yet we lived through it.
When the phone rang, it was a myst...

A former Polson property manager who skipped town with hundreds of thousands of dollars in security deposits is now wanted for skipping court.
District Judge Deborah Christopher issued a warrant in the amount of $150,000 for the arrest of Douglas Dennis Lichte, 42.
The warrant was issued afte...

RONAN – Lake County Community Development Corporation is accepting a second round of applications for their top leadership position.
Gypsy Ray, current executive director, is leaving the organization after four...

Special Sections

Articles Written By: Caleb M. Soptelean

POLSON — The Polson Commission last week approved an application that locals can use to apply for Tax Increment Financing.
TIF funds are provided by a tax on properties in the city and are typically used to renovate or renew blighted areas.
City officials said several people have expressed ...

POLSON — A Ronan man was sentenced to 15 years in the Department of Corrections last week with 10 years suspended for a drunk driving incident that resulted in a woman’s death.
Roland James Brown, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal endangerment stemming from an Aug. 20, 2017, i...

POLSON — A former St. Ignatius man now living in Wyoming was given credit for 315 days served last week as part of a three-year suspended sentence for marijuana possession.
Judge James A. Manley gave Solomon Preston Bolen credit for 225 days in the Lake County Jail and 90 days at a counseling ...

POLSON — A 63-year-old Polson man got 20 years in state prison with 10 suspended last week for sexual assault of a juvenile and indecent exposure.
Judge James A. Manley sentenced Robert Walter Bertsch in accord with a plea agreement. Manley ordered that Bertsch not be given parole during the 1...

POLSON — A 24-year-old Pablo man has been charged with raping a juvenile.
According to a court document, Cory Ryan Drowatzky had oral intercourse with a 15-year-old boy on Jan. 8.
Drowatzky was released on his own recognizance on Jan. 10 but ordered to wear a GPS tracking device. He p...

POLSON — A Polson man has been charged with sexual assault of a juvenile.
Zachary James Dentler, 23, touched the breasts of a 13-year-old girl and tried to make her put her hands down his pants and rub his chest, a court document states.
Dentler admitted to touching the girl’s b...

POLSON — Although a structural engineer has said the Linderman Gym is safe for occupancy, Polson Schools Superintendent Rex Weltz decided to err on the side of caution and seek a second opinion.
Weltz gave an update about the gym, which was built in 1950, at the Feb. 12 school board meeting. A...

POLSON — Polson’s newest housing development is open for business.
Polson Landing Apartments opened Dec. 22, property manager Vanessa Lujan said.
The affordable-housing development, which is located on Ridgewater Drive next to the city’s new soccer fields across from Mission Val...

POLSON — It may not have been a sweet deal, but the Lake County Planning Board and 15 community members met the evening of Feb. 14 during a snowstorm.
The Planning Board — which is in the process of writing a new growth policy to update one approved in 2003 — took public comment on...

POLSON — A man complicit in the theft of more than $28,000 in coins and precious metals from a Ronan man in 2015 received a five-year suspended sentence last week.
Michael Paul Furbush, 28, was sentenced by Judge Kim Christopher for his part in the theft. He was given credit for 92 days served in th...